1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to service counters and more particularly, to an improved service counter which allows a single service person to simultaneously service two customers at a single service station.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many businesses and industries individual service personnel positioned behind a counter are responsible for servicing several customers. For example, in the banking, sports events, credit and food service industries. In such installations customers sit or stand on one side of a counter while a service person works on the other side of the counter. Conventional teller lines for banks generally include a large number of teller stations arranged in a row. A teller is stationed at each teller station, and each teller station includes a single customer window. As a consequence of this structure, a single teller can only service one customer at a time and, as is often the case, a banking customer arrives at the customer window unprepared to complete his or her banking transaction. Under such circumstances, the teller stands idle while the customer prepares a document for the banking transaction. The amount of time that a teller is idle greatly reduces teller efficiency.
The equipment efficiency inherent in the structure of conventional teller windows is also relatively low since the equipment at each teller station, as well as the teller, is idle during the time that the customer is preparing for a banking transaction. Much of the equipment at a teller line, particularly teller machines, are expensive and the capital and maintenance expenses of such machines being idle materially increases the cost of banking services.
The teller stations of most conventional teller lines are arranged in a continuous, linear row so that the customer windows of adjacent teller stations are closely spaced apart from each other. As a result, a customer at a teller station normally has relatively little privacy from the customers at adjacent teller stations who are easily able to view the nature and amount of the customer's banking transaction.